The Red Baroness - Prologue
by atikabubu
Summary: One day in Venezia, a man wanted to free his country from the influence from Ostmark, but his plans got foiled by the appearance of the scourge of mankind.


" **The best thing you can do is the right thing; the next best thing you can do is the wrong thing; the worst thing you can do is nothing." -Theodore Roosevelt**

* * *

The clouds over Sarajevo were almost inexistent on this day. The summer breeze was gently sweeping across the streets, giving a bit of respite on this warm day at the end of June. The streets were crowdy for a reason, somewhat less before Schiller's delicatessen, where there was a man in a trench coat was leaning against the wall and smoking a cigarette. He took the paper he had folded under his armpit, and after just briefly glancing at the date to better memorize it, June 28, 1914, he threw it away, looking up into the tranquil sky.

 _Čabrinović and his bunch of morons failed, but it seems that bourgeoise, pompous swine is still continuing his little parade across the river bank. Always trust the human nature – it never fails…_

He reached into the pocket of his trench coat, and felt at ease, feeling the FN Model 1910 pistol sitting there. Despite the purpose it was supposed to be used for, the serial number 19074 was still present on it. The rabble on the main street near the riverbank got a bit louder, and the sound of a car engine could be heard.

 _The time has come. The decadent swine which wants to unite Ostmark and our beloved Venezia is coming here, despite that explosion I heard earlier. All of them cling to their lives as if it's the last thing to do on the round Earth… It all ends today!_

He slowly lifted himself off of the wall, and started walking down to the crossroad with this road and the one on the river bank. He could hear the car incoming, as well as all the cheers of the people surrounding it, as well as the police giving out orders to clear the path. In a moment, the black Gräf & Stift 28/32 PS _Double Phaeton_ came into his view, surrounded by a slew of policemen. The time seemed to slow down for the man as he reached for his pistol. He could see everything clearly, especially the target and his wife.

And those heightened senses were what saved him. He heard a high-pitched metallic screech above him. He immediately looked up and saw something like from a hellscape, a true nightmare. Swarms of polygonal black crafts with hexagonal markings was flying above the town. And before he could even think of something, one of them shot a red beam of light. It almost immediately hit car with his target, making it shoot up into the air and decimating the policemen and bystanders. Suddenly more beams started coming down, wreaking havoc across the whole city.

 _Dear God… What is this? What in all saints is happening?! Is it the end of days?!_

Suddenly, an explosion hit him in the back and he went almost deaf, falling down on the cobblestone. He stood up on wobbly legs and looked behind him. The whole store on which he was leaning against was now a smoldering wreck, corpses of people lying around, torn around, burnt, and maimed. Panic happened instantaneously, but he in his mind suddenly found his purpose again.

 _I have to see… Yes, I have to make sure… He has to die..._

He pushed through the swarm of people, and arrived at a crater with the wreck of the car lying upside down on the edge of it, cut in half and burning. The man he was looking for was there in a puddle of blood. His right leg was cut clean off, but it looks cauterized. The whole blood was coming from the one he was holding.

 _Dear God help me… She's been cut in half… All the blood is hers… And all these guts…_

"Sophie, Sophie! Don't die! Live for our children!" the man cried sorrowfully, rocking the woman in his arms.

A bit surprisingly for both him and the man observing him, she moved her arm, and placed her hand on her husband's cheek, but if fell down immediately as the life escaped her body.

The man in the trench coat looked around. The mysterious alien assailants were relentlessly bombarding the city with their energy beams, but also what seemed odd, conventional bombs, at least from a first look.

"You…" he heard a voice from the ground and turned to the grieving man. "Can you help me?"

 _Can I help him… He wants to annex our country! He… Ugh… He's a cripple and widower, and hell has ascended onto the surface of the planet all of a sudden.. If I leave him, nothing of value will be lost… Nobody will recognize me, I will be in Romagna soon…_

He looked at him coldly and turned around, wanting to do just what he thought of.

"If you can get me out of here… I will shower you with riches… I will make you a wealthy man… Look around you – the world is ending. Monsters from a forgotten era have come back…"

"You… You know what those things are?" 'Trenchcoat' asked.

"You must have skipped a lesson or two in school… Those… Those abominations are Neuroi… Plaguing humanity from the dark ages but… It was a bit too silent lately…"

 _Maybe… Maybe this man could change his mind now?_

"What will happen to us now?"

"Us… We, Europe… An international call to arms, I think. That would be the best case scenario… If humanity is united under one banner..."

 _What good would it be to murder him now… He is a leader, he has a whole country at his disposal, or at least will have… I'm sorry, comrades, but today this one lives…_

"Fine then," the trench coat wearing man sighed and approached the one-legged man, lifting him up. "I will help you."

" _Danke sehr…_ What is your name?"

"Gavrilo…"

 **Schweidnitz, Eastern Karlsland**

Three figures in hunting outfits were skulking across a small forest in Karlsland, one of them a girl with shoulder length dark hair, and the other two being boys with short cut blonde hair.

"Easy now, Bolko… Easy…" the girl whispered as the one to her right took his hunting rifle from his back. "Remember – a deer is a fickle beast. If it hears you cocking the weapon, it will run away… Slowly…"

"Bolie wouldn't do anything not clumsy if it would kill him…" the other sighed.

"Shush, Lothar. Everyone has to learn one day."

"Just saying, Mannie…"

The girl sighed, and returned to taking care of Bolko.

"Just like we practiced – slowly cock it, aim, and fire."

Bolko nodded, cocking the rifle so slow and silently that he barely heard it, and he took aim at a beautiful deer just fifty meters away from them. He waited a bit, aiming carefully, and finally fired. The tranquility of the forest was marred by the loud bang, and the dear cried, falling to the ground.

Bolko himself looked stunned, Lothar nodded his head in admiration, but 'Mannie' patter the former on the back affectionately.

"Good job, brother," she smiled brightly, truly proud of her brother. "Let's go and put it out of its misery."

"U… Uhuh…" he said a bit dazed, but Lothar gave him a push, so he followed both him and his sister.

As Mannie approached the deer, she whistled, and said, "Through the heart, killed on the spot. You should be proud, Bolko."

"Uh… Thanks, Sis…"

"No problem. Okay you two, take the deer, we're having game for supper."

"And what about you?" Lothar asked with a grumpy face?

"Me?" she asked and picked the rifles off of the two. "I'm carrying the iron."

"Right…" he grumbled. "Come on brother, let's get this done with…"

The two brothers took the deer on their shoulders and followed her sister out of the forest. Immediately they saw a whole squadron fly over their heads on brooms, armed to the teeth, and clothed in Karlslander military uniforms.

"What the hell?" Mannie asked herself aloud.

* * *

"The world is uneasy – that's what," Lothar said, and now, all of them noticed one straggler on the broom, starting from where their home was. "What the hell?"

"This we have to investigate… Drop the dear!" she commanded.

The brothers dropped their trophy and Mannie gave them their rifles. The three ran back to their home, a small manor house. Mannie was the fastest of them, being in front of them, so she was the first to see their mother crying, holding some letters in her hands.

" _Mutter_ , what's wrong?!" Mannie asked.

" _Mein Gott!_ Manfriede!" she immediately hugged her child.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Bolko asked as he arrived.

"Yes, Mother, what's the problem? What did that witch want?" Lothar continued the 'interrogation'.

Their mother separated herself from Manfriede, and gave them an envelope each. Manfriede looked at hers. It had a Kairser's seal on it, and her name and adress clearly written on it with a typewriter – **Manfriede Richthofen, Schweidnitz, Karlsland.**

She ripped open the envelope, and started to read.

 _In the name of the Kaiser bla bla… Manfriede Richthofen… Witch… DRAFTED IMMEDIATELLY?!_

"Mom, what's this humbug?! A draft?!"

"Yes, Mother, what's going on?" Lothar asked.

She took a deep breath and said, "Sarajevo fell."

"Oh… And? Who was it? Ostmark?"

"No… It were…" she started tearing up again. "Neuroi…"

"Neuroi…" Manfriede paled. "You're sure?"

"Absolutely… The witch messenger told me… There's a global call to arms… Everything happened just three hours ago, and look, we already have a message… My baby…" she hugs her daughter again.

 _Why me… Why us… There was so much peace in the world and… Why my generation…_

Manfriede also started crying, but from sheer frustration and anger, gripping the material of the dress on her mother's back. Another squadron of witches flew past them almost silently, like angels of death.

 **Surprised? Me too. I wanted to get this out of my system a long time ago, but… Lo and behold, Lady Luck looked on me mercifully, and on the same day Franz Ferdinand was murdered, I decided to write this. This is a prologue to a story that might as well never appear. A story about the First Neuroi War, about the struggle of few to save the many. A story about ultimate sacrifice…**

 **Who knows, maybe one day you will see the Red Baroness flying…**

 **Also, be sure to visit the FFC Discord, link in my profile. We have cookies!**


End file.
